(meteorobs) Observation August 7/8 2005

Sat Aug 13 18:48:41 EDT 2005

On Sunday August 7, I observed for meteors all night at the Boundary road site (just east of Ottawa).  The skies were very clear, although this location is generally more affected by light pollution from Ottawa.  It was also a bit more warm and humid with occasional mosquitoes.  John MacPhee and a friend came to join me for some observing as well.

I had a very productive night.  Over the course of over 4 hours teff, I recorded 97 meteors which makes it the most meteors that I've seen in a single night this year.  The breakdown... 47 Perseids, 37 sporadics, 5 Alpha Capricornids, 4 North Delta Aquarids, 3 South Delta Aquarids and 1 anthelion.  Sporadics activity were similar to the previous night.  Perseids were also holding at a similar pace.

The highlights... At 11:56pm EDT, a blue-white mag -3 Perseid fireball with a 20 degrees path and a 10 secs persistent train.  Also, at 12:46am, with a beautiful gold-yellow mag -3 Perseid fireball with a 30 degrees long path, and a 4 sec train.

At 3:32am EDT, I spotted a NOSS satellite triplet moving from south to north.  They were quite bright between mag +2 and +3.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario

DATE: August 7/8 2005
BEGIN: 0320 UT (2320 EDT)  END: 0800 UT (0400 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North  Elevation: 300 ft
City & Province: Boundary road, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting & cord align
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OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		KCG (Kappa Cygnids)______________________________18:52 +58
		CAP (Alpha Capricornids)_________________________21:00 -08
		ANT (anthelions)_________________________________21:56 -11		
		NDA (N. Delta Aquarids)__________________________22:12 -06
		SIA (S. Iota Aquarids)___________________________22:24 -15
		SDA (S. Delta Aquarids)__________________________23:08 -14
		PAU (Pisces Austrinids)__________________________23:20 -27
		PER (Perseids)___________________________________02:36 +57
		SPO (random sporadics)
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OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen;  / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM_____SPO_PER_KCG_CAP_SIA/ANT_NDA_SDA_PAU

0320-0420__2210+33__1.00__6.21____7___6___0___1_____1_____0___0___0
0420-0530__2335+32__1.01__6.28____7__11___0___2_____0_____1___2___0
0530-0627__0127+34__0.95__6.30___10__10___0___1_____0_____1___0___0
0635-0735__0208+37__1.00__6.30____6__15___0___1_____0_____2___0___0
0735-0800__0208+37__0.42__6.27____7___5___0___0_____0_____0___1___0

TOTALS:_____________4.38_________37__47___0___5_____1_____4___3___0  = 97

*Note: SIA/ANT activity combined together

The first column (Period UT) refers to observing periods broken down as close as possible to one hour of true observing, in Universal Time. The second column (Field) is the area in in the sky where I centered my field of view. The third column (TEFF) represents effective observing time (corrected for breaks or any time I did not spent looking at the sky).  The next column (LM) is the average naked eye limiting magnitude, determined by triangle star counts. All following columns indicate the number of meteors for each shower observed.
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MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

SHOWER
______-3__-2__-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5_____AVE

SPO____0___0___2___2___1___7___9___11__5_____+2.95
PER____2___1___0___1___3___11__10__8__11_____+2.85
CAP____0___0___1___0___1___1___1___1___0_____+1.80
ANT____0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0___0_____+2.00
NDA____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___2___2_____+4.50
SDA____0___0___0___0___1___0___0___1___1_____+3.33

Note: Magnitude scale is to determine the brightness of sky objects. Magnitude -8 is comparable to a quarter moon, magnitude -4 with the planet Venus, magnitude -1 with the brightest star Sirius, magnitude +2 to +3 with most average naked eye stars and magnitude +6 to +7 are the faintest stars the naked eye can see under typical dark conditions. A meteor of at least magnitude -3 is considered a fireball.

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SKY OBSCURED (FOV): None

F = 1.00

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Dead time: 9.5 min (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 5:03-12, 4:34 (30sec), 6:27-35

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